The Supreme Court says it won’t suspend Quebec’s secularity law, still commonly called Bill 21. Court challenges of the law are still to come – it’s merely an interim suspension that’s been ruled out.
Updates from April, 2020 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Metro notes that roads and sidewalks are dirty with post-winter scuzz, but it doesn’t provide the main reason why, which we discussed on this blog: the parking changes that create a window for street sweeping machines to pass have been postponed, and you can’t mechanically clean a street full of parked cars.
Brett
Parks are also full of litter and leaves, although the trash cans seem to be emptied regularly. Throw your trash in the bin, folks!
Michael Black
Yes, I was expecting overflowing garbage cans, but I’ve not seen those. Maybe because people are littering (but I’ve not seen that around here) but I think because they’ve been emptied.
Remember, the snow is barely gone, the accumulated garbage of the winter revealed. If that’s not been cleared up, it will look awful, even if no more is added.
I keep seeing the 24 bus passing by, no delays and it seems more frequent than usual. But virtually no passengers, and nowhere for me to go.
Kate
Since there won’t be any tourists this year, we can resolve to live with it till it’s a safe time to clean it up.
walkerp
Good opportunity to take the initiative and clean up the trash on your own street. I believe you did that, Kate. I did it on my block. I just can’t deal with the spring garbage thaw. I just walked up and down with gloves and a big garbage bag the day before pick-up. Took me an hour, got me outside, had great conversations with pleased neighbours (at a safe distance) and now the block looks much nicer. It’s a win for all.
Kate
walkerp, I haven’t done it yet this year, and I’m out of garbage bags. At some point I’m going to have to make a sortie to Jean-Coutu and once I have some, I’ll do my block.
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Kate
Add to the list of cancellations the fireworks competition which was scheduled from June 20 to July 29.
Francesco
Evenko and Ticketmaster sent me notifications today that the Jurassic World Live run at Centre Bell during Labour Day week has been cancelled. Pity, we had box seats ringside!
dwgs
Evenko hasn’t yet announced a cancellation for the George Clinton show of May 21. Not only are they sitting on my money but I checked and they’re still selling tickets
Raymond Lutz
Is there a link between the fireworks competition and COVID-19? (apart for confinement?) YES! Air pollution and PM2.5 raise risk of COVID-19 death. Bienvenue.
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Kate
The driver of an 18-wheeler thought it was a good idea to make a U-turn on the Jacques-Cartier bridge Thursday morning. The bridge is empty on the captured picture, but the truck driver was issued a $1546 ticket anyway.
Dominic
What a photograph!
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Kate
Notes on what’s open and closed over Easter weekend when most things are closed anyway.
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Kate
A “corridor sanitaire” will be put in along Mont-Royal Avenue between Park Avenue and Fullum, borrowing lanes from the road to make the sidewalk safely wider for pedestrians.
Joey
I’ve seen this announcement floating around (the PM gang were keen to share on FB, etc.) – don’t think I’ve heard of a start date. Any idea when this is expected to come into being?
Kate
Not seeing any start date yet, Joey. The Journal article is also all in future tense verbs but nothing definite on time.
Tim S.
I’ve noticed something similar on the east-west streets in Westmount. I first I though they were marking out where they were going to put bike lanes but it makes more sense that it’s an improvised wider sidewalk.
(I call them east-west streets, but that’s only Montreal Island geography – a compass might tell you they’re NNE-SSW)
Kate
Westmount is also trying to get people to walk in the same direction as traffic to avoid having pedestrians pass each other.
JP
I have mixed feelings about walking in the same direction as traffic. Maybe on dense, commercial streets this might work well. I hope they wouldn’t implement this on residential or mostly residential streets.
I understand that these are out-of-the-ordinary times, but I have reasons for walking on certain sides of the street or crossing over, for example if someone near me is smoking or someone’s walking a large dog close by.
Kate
JP, I know exactly what you mean. Besides, just as practically, there may be stores on the “wrong” side of the street that you need to visit, or it’s a chilly day and you want to be in the sun, but it’s also shining on the “wrong” side.
Joey
They’ve started setting up barricades on Mont-Royal.
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Kate
I wonder about the implicit bias in articles like CBC’s Canadian real estate markets hit hard by pandemic and Metro’s À Montréal, le marché du logement durement frappé par le coronavirus. CBC subheads “Tough times are forecast” but lower down it’s “Lower prices predicted” – so who’s suffering? Not the modest buyer, I’m guessing. Tough times for real estate agents, but the bubble was bound to burst sometime.
Myles
If we don’t do something fast, the unwealthy might be able to buy houses! The horror!
qatzelok
We don’t live in homes anymore, we live in “real estate markets.”
Also, I am still receiving tons of junk mail that ‘congratulate’ me or promise me free money if I fill in a form. Is there a less essential service than this? Go home and take care of your families, junkmail workers! (real estate trolls too)
GC
I had the same thought when a telemarketer bothered me last week. “Really? You’re still working???” I suppose they have to pay the bills, however, and a lot of them probably already work from home.
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Kate
A section of Gouin Boulevard has been closed in Pierrefonds as the back river is beginning to rise. And we’re expecting heavy rain later Thursday.
Radio-Canada says blue collar workers are gradually cleaning things up. I saw some this week unblocking sewers along Guizot in Villeray.
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Kate
There’s been a lowish-level story about the MUHC’s chosen new research head being resisted by people here after a mass petition based on an article in Science. Now he has withdrawn from the offer. Dr. Constantine Stratakis had held important jobs in the U.S., but there were “allegations of sex and age discrimination by Stratakis against female researchers and neglect of research on women’s health issues.” The MUHC is looking for candidates with a less troubled history.
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Kate
Jean-Talon market is still operating, although with plexi around the cash registers as elsewhere. I had been wondering whether the dealers in seedling plants would be able to open: these operators of gardening centres are frustrated that big-box stores can offer many of the seasonal products they would be offering – if they were allowed to open.
Chris
I hope they can reopen. I’m hoping for a return of Victory Gardens.
JaneyB
Those gardening centers should be driving slowly down residential streets with pickup trucks full of bedding plants. In the olden days, farmers used to sell their wares from trucks as they drove down streets because women were too busy with kids to go to a store. They still do this in NDG during strawberry season. They sell everything they’ve got. Also, how is it that Lufa Farms can organize food delivery yet these garden centres cannot organize bedding plant delivery in a neighbourhood-centric way that minimizes costs? Mystifying. They should have been doing that for years already – the city is full of car-less balcony folks.
Tim S.
Great idea, JaneyB. I just got my seeds through mail order this week, having ordered them about three weeks earlier. There’s a notice on the seller’s website about massively increased demand, but they’re still open because they’re considered part of the national food supply.
david190 11:22 on 2020-04-10 Permalink
While some might read the case as indicating which party the court feels is likely to prevail, I wonder how much this played:
“C’est la nature même du régime canadien: il permet de contester les lois québécoises, en vertu d’une Constitution que le Québec n’a pas signée,” a-t-il déploré dans une déclaration transmise à Radio-Canada.
Kevin 12:36 on 2020-04-10 Permalink
I am always amused at diehard separatists who think René Levesque was willing to sign the federal constitution.